I am not a literary giant

"Who told you to guess what the boss is thinking? Who told you to guess the boss's thoughts like that?"

Upon hearing Mei Rucheng's words, Wang Zixu felt as if a freezer had been opened in the summer, and his heart sank.

Mei Rucheng placed his hands on the table, his wrinkled eyes fixed on Wang Zixu with a sharp gaze.

Power can temper a murderous aura. Mei Rucheng had wielded power for decades, and his eyes held a palpable murderous intent; Wang Zixu dared not meet his gaze.

Mei Rucheng suddenly slammed his hand on the table: "Speak up! Who told you that?"

A paperclip fell to the floor, its tinkling sound echoing throughout the office.

Section Chief Liu was sweating profusely, Shen Qingfeng stood with his hands in his pockets and sneered, while Ning Chunyan stood to the side with his arms crossed, looking around with great interest.

She didn't know what had happened, but she was somewhat gloating.

It's his fault for yelling.

Prince Xu whispered, "Nobody told me, I just thought of it myself."

"Oh." Mei Rucheng nodded slowly. "You came up with it yourself."

He paused for a few seconds, then said:

"Comrade Wang, in administration, the easiest way to excel is to figure out the intentions of superiors; the easiest way to make mistakes is also to figure out the intentions of superiors."

"Swallows do not return in spring, green trees cast deep shadows in summer, red leaves and yellow flowers in autumn, and plum blossoms bloom in winter." What are your thoughts when you see these four lines?

Wang Zixu said, "I thought to myself, these four lines are fragments, incomplete."

Mei Rucheng turned to look at Ning Chunyan: "Xiao Chun, what do you think?"

Ning Chunyan was taken aback, and said blankly, "Huh?"

She hadn't expected to have her own business here.

Mei Rucheng took out a piece of paper, rolled it out, and placed it on the table. On the paper were those four lines:

Swallows do not return in spring

Shady trees in summer

Red leaves and yellow flowers in autumn

Lying down, watching the plum blossoms in winter

"Spring, summer, autumn, winter." Ning Chunyan leaned over to look. "It's quite neat, but it's definitely all fragmented sentences."

Mei Rucheng asked, "What is the first line of the poem?"

Ning Chunyan said, "Is it Dai Shulun's poem? How did you recite it again? 'A stretch of misty rain, apricot blossoms in the cold'?"

"And the second one?"

"Summer Day at the Mountain Pavilion"

"The third one."

"have no idea."

Mei Rucheng glanced at Wang Zixu: "Tell her."

Wang Zixu said, "Red leaves and yellow flowers are in full bloom in autumn's chaos; you should remember the white fish and purple crabs." (This is a poem by Su Shi. His name was too long; I've forgotten it.)

Mei Rucheng feigned surprise: "You can forget? I thought you had a photographic memory!"

The prince broke out in a cold sweat: "No, I don't have a photographic memory..."

Ning Chunyan blinked, her dark eyes fixed on him, sensing the challenge.

Mei Rucheng waved the manuscript paper in his hand and said, "I heard that you wrote these three sentences from memory on the spot, without looking them up online?"

Prince Xu replied, "No."

"These poems span the Tang and Song dynasties; can you remember them all?"

"The leaders remember it too."

Mei Rucheng nodded, staring at him with a half-smile.

"Xiaochun, take another look at this fourth sentence," Mei Rucheng said.

Ning Chunyan leaned closer to look: "Lying down, I see plum blossoms white in the winter moonlight, and I almost think that evening snow has covered the village in front of me..."

"Who wrote this?"

Ning Chunyan shook her head: "Forgive my ignorance."

Mei Rucheng looked at Wang Zixu: "Who wrote this?"

Prince Xu whispered, "I wrote it..."

"Did you write this before?"

"I just wrote it."

"Just this half a song?"

"Only half a song."

Mei Rucheng finally smiled, as if a dark cloud was pressing down on the city, but a gentle breeze swept in and suddenly the clouds and smoke dissipated.

Ning Chunyan read it aloud twice more, then looked up at Wang Zixu: "Did you really write this? It's not bad."

Prince Xu lowered his head: "So-so."

He wasn't being modest. If he said it was just average, then it really was just average.

How good a poem can you write in less than 30 seconds?

Mei Rucheng looked at Wang Zixu with a half-smile:

"Why do you think the first three lines are all quotes from classical poems, but the fourth line is different? Why do you think that is?"

Prince Xu said, "I... hadn't thought about it."

"Do you think the leadership really intends for us to complete this poem ourselves?"

"……have no idea."

Why don't you think about it?

"There was no time to think about it at the time."

"You didn't have time to think about these questions at the time, but you did have time to think of a line of poetry and write it down?"

Wang Zixu felt a little embarrassed—Mei Rucheng's question was indeed a problem.

Wang Zixu said, "I feel that completing this poem would be relatively simple."

Mei Rucheng's expression was a bit strange.

Not only did Mei Rucheng's expression look a bit strange, but everyone present also had a strange expression.

Their eyes seemed to ask: Is it simple?

Therefore, Wang Zixu added, "It's simpler than trying to figure out the leader's intentions."

"Comrade Xiao Wang," Mei Rucheng said, "I admit you are quite talented. However, as I just said, the most difficult thing in administration is figuring out the intentions of your superiors."

"When writing official documents, you must take the leader's intentions as the absolute benchmark and avoid making your own interpretations. If you are not careful, you will be taking a huge risk. This risk is political risk."

"You've never worked in this unit before, you don't understand the leadership's thinking, and you haven't been responsible for drafting the leadership's past documents. How do you know if the leadership is satisfied with what you've written?"

After a pause, Mei Rucheng lit a cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said, "Do you know why I said that?"

Before Wang Zixu could answer, he turned around, opened the bookshelf behind him, searched for a while, found a copy of "Xihe Literature" inside, threw it on the table, turned to the title page, pointed to the paper and said, "Come and see for yourself."

Wang Zixu and Ning Chunyan both leaned over at the same time.

On the title page is a short poem, and where Mei Rucheng is pointing, there is a line of slightly familiar lines:

Lying down, I watch the plum blossoms melt away the winter snow; by day, their fragrance fills the green mountain path.

And on the author's line, the name written was that of the top leader himself.

"Lying down, I watch the plum blossoms melt away the winter snow; by day, their fragrance fills the green mountain path." Ning Chunyan looked up. "Did the leader write this himself?"

"Yes. This is a short poem that the top leader was invited to publish in Xihe Literature and Art when he first took office. It caused a sensation as soon as it was published and was sung in the local area for a long time."

"So, the line 'Lying down, watching plum blossoms in winter' is actually a quote from his own poem?"

"Yes. He just handed me the note. Because I knew the poem, and he knew I knew it too. I thought Xiao Liu knew it too, but it turns out he didn't."

"So," Ning Chunyan said, "when they couldn't find the leader's poem, they simply filled in that half-line themselves and submitted it to the leader. Right?"

Mei Rucheng exhaled a puff of smoke, his face shrouded in mist.

"right."

Even without looking at his expression, you could sense his speechlessness.

Ning Chunyan covered her mouth and chuckled.

"What do you call this? This is a classic case of being too clever for one's own good. Being too clever can backfire and make one look foolish."

Ning Chunyan looked at Wang Zixu with her bright eyes, her dark pupils sparkling with pleasure: "If you were even a little bit naive, you would have just asked him a question, instead of struggling to write half a poem yourself."

The prince was drenched in sweat.

He felt like he was oozing idiocy. Like a burning garbage can.

Ning Chunyan asked, "What did the top leader say? Did he criticize you?"

Mei Rucheng glared and said, "If I had been criticized, would I be able to sit here chatting and joking with you all so easily?"

The prince thought to himself, "So this is just casual chatting."

Ning Chunyan asked, "So, what was the leader's evaluation of the poem he wrote?"

"The boss said," Mei Rucheng took a drag of his cigarette, "that it's fucking well written."